Struggling Arsenal U18s suffer heavy defeat to Boga-inspired Chelsea

A first-half hat-trick from Jeremie Boga condemned Arsenal U18s to their seventh defeat of the season this morning against a determined Chelsea side.

Given the current strength of the U21 side, coach Carl Laraman was able to call upon second-string regulars Chuba Akpom and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, whilst Alfred Mugabo returned from injury in the only other change to the team that earned a point against Southampton last week.

Huddart

Moore-Wright-Siemann-Uade

Mugabo-Jebb

Maitland Niles-Crowley-Iwobi

Akpom

subs: Smith (for Mugabo, 68). Not used: Bola, Raage, Dawkins, Hinds.

Kick-off was delayed by 45 minutes due to the Chelsea team arriving late, but the visitors certainly made up for lost time by opening the scoring in the sixth minute, with the talented Boga beating Ryan Huddart with a well-struck effort.

Just moments earlier Huddart had been on hand to deny Boga with a good save, and the goalkeeper then had Tafari Moore to thank for clearing the ball off the line with Isaiah Brown bearing down on goal.

Arsenal responded with Akpom directing a header on target, but the striker’s effort was comfortably gathered by Chelsea goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney. At the other end Brown was a persistent threat, with the former West Bromwich Albion youngster weaving his way past Arsenal’s defenders before directing a shot narrowly off target.

Chelsea were the dominant side, but Arsenal were not without their chances, with Jebb striking a post with an expertly-delivered free-kick. Jebb, who was becoming increasingly influential, then found Mugabo with another set-piece, but the Rwanda international could only send his effort wide.

Chelsea, though, were always a threat at the other end and Boga scored twice before the interval to complete his hat-trick and leave Arsenal shellshocked. First, the 16 year old beat Huddart with a ferocious strike before adding the finishing touch to a multi-pass move on the stroke of half-time.

Jebb, who continued to battle on in adversity, shot over with the first attempt of note in the second-half, before Alex Iwobi, who had been rather quiet up until that point, forced Beeney to gather his well-struck effort.

Arsenal then introduced Renny Smith into the fray against his former club in place of Mugabo, but Chelsea were still the more dangerous side, with Brown testing Huddart again, this time from long-range.

Arsenal’s plight was epitomised by Beeney being equal to Jebb’s effort following good work from Maitland-Niles down the right flank, and, although Akpom came close to reducing the deficit in the dying stages, the Gunners had given themselves too difficult a task as a consequence of their disappointing first-half performance.

Chelsea were fully deserved winners, and, in Boga and Brown, possess two supremely talented youngsters. Arsenal, meanwhile, are now without a win in eleven games at this level and have the small matter of facing Tottenham Hotspur away next weekend.

11 comments

Tbh man it’s telling that this was the first time you could mention this comment! Would like to say shame about the result but don’t think it was a surprise by any means though good to hear jebb had a decent game. Like Jom’s said though with a defense like that we won’t win much. At first I thought It was the quality of the opposition but we actually let individual players dribble through our defense. Easy to point to the coach and I’m sure he has some responsibility but there’s no denying there are glaring lapses on part of the players (especially defensive)

as under u18 teams go this could possibly be our strongest fielding this season.

I would love there to be a day in the calendar where we could choose our 4 strongest teams, first team, under 21, youth champions league and u18s. imagine no player could represent more than 1 team and you have to name a bench as well could it be done? just throwing it out there.

Hate losing to other London club academies. Arsenal ‘tried’ to buy Brown from West Brom, but it was Chelsea that turned his head more. Feeling it for the U18’s boys at the moment. You need to learn how to ‘lose’ in football, so that you can build mentally and become stronger for the future, but this run of losing games regardless of who we seemingly put out on the field can and will start to have an effect on moral and lead to individual and collective confidence issues – we need to learn to ‘win’ as well, it’s a tonic in itself. We can’t change the players (and why should we), maybe it’s time for a radical shake up in the coaching staff and their methods, as whatever we’re doing at this level – it obviously isn’t working?
Come on you young Gunners!

I agree. You learn from losing but being 2-0 down is mentally tough and constantly dropping the lead is also very mentally tough. After 10 games they will think ohh shit now comes the hard part where we need to keep the lead, and then when we lose the lead its become increasingly harder to come back and make those winning goals.

The problem is we are trying to teach our kids to play from the back no matter how much pressure they got from 2-3 players and I have seen quite a few error when we do try to play from the back despite having a lead. The midfield need to come back down and help out or we can simply hoof the ball from the back just to get rid of it sometimes. I don’t see that often in U18 games.

I don’t know why the u18s are struggling so much this season when the u21s are still unbeaten and half of these lads are involved in that team also. It almost seems like they take it less seriously and save their best for the u21 games

These results are no surprise to people in football and also for the record Chelsea also beat Arsenal 4-1 during the week at the U15 level showing that they are the club in London who have taken a grip on who gets the best players. The problem with Arsenal is they have not moved on with the times, they have employed very poor staff, they do not invest in recruitment as they should do. There used to be a time where Arsenal were in control of London when it came to getting the best players, this has now changed drastically in favour of Chelsea, with Tottenham & West Ham very close as well. A close friend of mine who works in the community and does some coaching at the Academy says the sooner the current management leave the better for the club as it needs a new fresh input into what they do.